Changing Understandings of Liberal and Liberal Education

1
Changing Understandings of Liberal and Liberal
Education
COPLAC Summer Meeting Keene, New Hampshire June
20, 2009 Carol Geary Schneider President
2
The Emerging National Dialogue on American
Capability

• Two Locations
• Campus Faculty and Leaders
• Employers
• AACU Connecting Educators with Employers

3
Preparing Students for Twenty-First Century
Realities

• 2000-2005 Greater Expectations
• A National Dialogue About Goals and
  Effective Practices in College Learning
• 2005-2015 Liberal Education and Americas
  Promise (LEAP)
• A Ten-Year Effort to Make
• Excellence Inclusive

4
The Essential Learning Outcomes

• Knowledge of Human Cultures and the Physical and
  Natural World
• Focused on engagement with enduring and
  contemporary big questions
• Intellectual and Practical Skills
• Practiced extensively across the curriculum, in
  the context of progressively more challenging
  problems, projects, and standards for performance
• Personal and Social Responsibility
• Anchored through active involvement with diverse
  communities and real-world challenges
• Integrative Learning
• Demonstrated through the application of
  knowledge, skills, and
  responsibilities to new settings and
  complex problems

5
The World is Demanding More

• There is a demand for more numbers of college
  educated workers.
• There is also a demand that those educated
  workers have higher levels of learning and
  knowledge.

6
Why Is There a Need for Higher Levels of Learning?

• In a globalized knowledge economy, the capacity
  to drive innovation is the key strategic economic
  advantage
• Rapid scientific and technological innovations
  are changing the workplace and demanding more of
  all employees
• Global interdependence and complex cross-cultural
  interactions increasingly define modern society
  and the workplace and call for new levels of
  knowledge and capability

7
Productivity Is Now Tied to Learning

• Half Life of Industries, Companies, Jobs, and
  Skills Decreasing
• Today's Students Will Have 10-14 Jobs By the Time
  They are 38
• 50 of Workers Have Been With Their Company Less
  Than 5 Years
• 25 Less than 1 Year
• Breadth, Depth, Application of
  Academic Preparation is Expanding

DOL-BLS
8
Key Capabilities Open the Door for Career Success
and Earnings

• Irrespective of college major or institutional
  selectivity, what matters to career success is
  students development of a broad set of
  cross-cutting capacities
• Anthony Carnevale, Georgetown University
• Center on Education and the Workforce

9
The Growing Demand for Higher Order
Skills Source Council on Competitiveness,
Competitiveness Index
10

• In a Knowledge Economy, Liberal Education Has
  Become the Key to American Capability and Student
  Success

11

• Employers Strongly Endorse the LEAP Essential
  Learning Outcomes
• And They Urge New Effort to Help All Students
  Achieve Them

12
National Surveys of Employers on College Learning
and Graduates Work Readiness

• AACU commissioned Hart Research Associates
  (first in 2006 and next in 2007) to interview
  employers (C-level suite executives) whose
  companies report that 25 or more of their new
  hires hold at least a bachelors degree.
• Findings are summarized in the following reports
• How Should Colleges Prepare Students to Succeed
  in Todays Global Economy? (AACU, 2007)
• How Should Colleges Assess and Improve Student
  Learning? Employers Views on the Accountability
  Challenge (AACU, 2008)
• See www.aacu.org/leap/public_opinion_research

13
Balance of Broad Knowledge and Specific Skills
Preferred
Source How Should Colleges Prepare Students to
Succeed inTodays Global Economy? (AACU, 2007)
14
How important is it for colleges and universities
to provide the type of education described below?

• This particular approach to a four-year college
  education provides both broad knowledge in a
  variety of areas of study and more in-depth
  knowledge in a specific major or field of
  interest. It also helps students develop a sense
  of social responsibility, as well as intellectual
  and practical skills that span all areas of
  study, such as communication, analytical, and
  problem-solving skills, and a demonstrated
  ability to apply knowledge and skills in
  real-world settings.

Source How Should Colleges Prepare Students to
Succeed in Todays Global Economy? (AACU, 2007)
15
How important is it for colleges and universities
to provide this type of education (see previous
slide)?
Not sure
Less/not important
Very important
Fairly important
Business Leaders
76 of employers would recommend this type of
education to a young person they know.
Source How Should Colleges Prepare Students to
Succeed in Todays Global Economy? (AACU, 2007)
16
The Salary Premium for Liberal Education Outcomes

• From a federal database analyzing qualifications
  for 1,100 different jobs, there is consistent
  evidence that the highest salaries apply to
  positions that call for intensive use of liberal
  education capabilities, including (random order)
• Writing
• Inductive and Deductive Reasoning
• Judgment and Decision Making
• Problem Solving
• Social/Interpersonal Skills
• Mathematics
• Originality

Source Georgetown University Center on Education
and the Workforce
17
Liberal Education and Career Success

• Students need to know that the marketplace
  richly rewards graduates who possess high levels
  of competence in key liberal learning outcomes.
• Moreover, students who lack the hallmarks of a
  liberal education will not gain access to paths
  that require these high level capabilities.

Source Georgetown University Center on Education
and the Workforce
18

• Employers Seek Evidence that Graduates Can Apply
  Their Learning to Real-World Problems

19
Employers Advise on Where to Focus Assessment
Resources One/Two Practices to Which Colleges
Should Devote Resources
Source How Should Colleges Assess and Improve
Student Learning? AACU/ Peter D. Hart Research,
2008
20

• Implications for COPLAC

21
1. Give Students a Compass and Educators Too

• SHARED Responsibility for Essential Learning
  Outcomes

22
Goals/Outcomes for All Students College Learning
Among respondents from campuses WITH campus-wide
goals, percent saying their institutions common
set of learning goals/outcomes addresses each
area of knowledge/intellectual skills ability
Areas of Knowledge
Intellectual Skills/Ability
Humanities Science Social sciences Global/world
cultures Mathematics Diversity in
U.S. Technology U.S. history Languages Sustain-ab
ility
Writing skills Critical thinking Quantitative
reasoning Oral communication Intercultural
skills Information literacy Ethical
reasoning Civic engagement Application of
learning Research skills Integration of learning
23
But Many Students Do Not Understand the Expected
Learning Outcomes
How many of your students understand your
institutions intended goals or outcomes for
undergraduate learning?
Almost all
Not many
Majority
Some
Among members at institutions with learning
outcomes for all undergraduates
24
Current Strategies for Helping Students
Understand Intended Learning Goals
In which of these ways does your institution
explain intended learning goals or outcomes to
students?
Institutional catalog Course syllabi Web
site Faculty advisors Orientation
program Student advising system Institutions
view book First-year seminar/course
86 74 68 64 63 62 22 3
Among members at institutions with learning
outcomes for all undergraduates
25
2. Engage the Departments

• General Education Necessary But Not Sufficient
• Every Major Plays a Crucial Role in Students
  Achievement of the Essential Learning Outcomes

26
3. Embed High Impact/ High Effort
Practices WITHIN General Education AND
the Major
27
High Impact Practices

• First-Year Seminars and Experiences 
• Common Intellectual Experiences
• Learning Communities
• Writing-Intensive Courses
• Collaborative Assignments and Projects
• Science as Science Is Done/Undergraduate
  Research
• Diversity/Global Learning
• Service Learning, Community-Based Learning
• Internships
• Capstone Courses and Projects

28
4. Show What Students Can Do With Their Knowledge

• The Proof is In the Portfolio
• Our Students Best Work MUST Provide the Best and
  Most Compelling Evidence of Students
  Achievement and Americans Capabilities

29
A New Framework for Student Success

• Shared Goals That Build American Capability
• High Impact Practices that Support Essential
  Learning Outcomes
• Disaggregated Data That Shine a Light on
  Underserved Students Progress and Achievement
• Students Best Work Sampled and Synthesized For
  Public Reporting

30

• In Sum
  We Need Campus-Wide Commitmentand
  Capacityto Foster Essential Learning Outcomes
  and Liberal Education

31
This is a Defining Moment

• And Making Excellence Inclusive is Absolutely
  Fundamental to Our Future